Sandwich – Catherine Newman, 2024 – Second Monday selection, but I didn’t mark any quotes. I enjoyed it quite a bit but it’s not rib-sticking; cute, funny, slight.
The Deluge – Stephen Markley, 2023. Nature & Environment selection. The opposite: very dark. Quotes TBD.
The Outsiders – S. E. Hinton, 1967. Read for the Massachusetts Center for the Book August challenge: “A book with a protagonist who is a teenager or senior citizen.” I wrote “I’ve been meaning to read this classic for decades. Now that I’m 60 I’ve finally gotten around to it. Teenage me would have enjoyed it more, but the emotional drama and relatable characters were appealing.”
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed – Jon Ronson, 2015. Well-written, interesting.
The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1850. Great Books selection (re-read), quotes TBD.
Spent: A Comic Novel – Alison Bechdel, 2025. I enjoyed this because the character explorations felt like a continuation of Dykes to Watch Out For, and the art is great (especially the goats!), but I liked The Secret to Superhuman Strength more. (Hey, that’s not in my Goodreads list! Thank goodness for the CWMars reading history. Oh OK, it’s in the August list – would have just been left out of the year in review…)
Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier – Kevin Kelly, 2023. Loved it, will read again. On this go-round I just marked one quote that hit me: “What you do on your bad days matters more than what you do on your good days.” I have found that to be very true.
Carnival (Firefly #6) – Una McCormack, 2021. Loved it! Firefly is one of my favorite TV shows ever and I so wish there were more episodes. This novel provided an equivalent way more successfully than I could have imagined – I’m very impressed. I will read the others in the series, and look for more McCormack.
Short stories
“Young Goodman Brown,” Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1835. Read for Story Club, and it was a great companion piece to The Scarlet Letter. I’m sure I’d read it before, but not given it close attention; what a weird and unsettling piece. Having seen his diamond graffiti at The Old Manse, visited the House of the Seven Gables, and hiked Monument Mountain, I feel surrounded by Hawthorne traces!